Why I Started Optimizing My Home Office

I went full-time remote in March 2021. My setup: a MacBook on a kitchen table, a dining room chair, and a window that created significant backlight problems on every video call. I worked this way for seven months before I addressed the situation.

Seven months is a long time to sit in a chair that was designed for meals rather than eight-hour workdays. My neck informed me of this regularly. My back had opinions. My video call quality was, by all accounts, "cozy" — which Kyle started saying around month three and which I understood to be negative.

The Research Phase

I started researching in October 2021. The research phase lasted four months. I know this because I have the browser history and the bookmark folder titled "desk setup v3" containing 47 saved pages, none of which I acted on during those four months.

My wife pointed out that the research was taking longer than the problem had existed. I acknowledged this. The research continued.

The First Purchase

In February 2022, I bought a monitor arm — an Ergotron LX, based on what I concluded after a month of comparative research was the correct arm at the value price point. The setup took 45 minutes. I adjusted the monitor to eye level for the first time in eleven months of remote work.

The neck situation resolved within two weeks. Two weeks. Four months of research, forty-five minutes of installation, two weeks to resolution. The arithmetic of delay is something I think about when I'm mid-research on a new purchase.

What This Site Is

Desk Made Simple exists because the research I did during those four months was scattered, inconsistent, and mostly written by people who hadn't actually used the products in a real WFH environment with real constraints — limited space, kids in the background, video calls every day.

I have used every product I recommend in exactly those conditions. I have also made the wrong purchase enough times to know what the wrong purchase looks like before you make it. Both types of information are here.

Kyle calls approximately twice a month with setup questions. His questions have gotten better over time. The site is partly for people like Kyle, at various stages of the setup journey.